Name Prononciation in Email Signature?

April 26, 2020 11:26 AM

In my job I get a lot of email introductions that lead to phone or Zoom calls. My name is easy to say, but the spelling is easy to mispronounce. For example, if my name sounds like “Hazel” but is spelled “Hazyl”. Not the biggest deal, but it would be nice if there was an easy and gentle way to share how my name is pronounced. Like in an email signature?

This is mostly a work issue as I started a new job requiring me to constantly meet new people. Every week there are email introductions to new folks followed by Zoom meetings with even more folks. In this role I will always be meeting and interfacing with new people, even when I am no longer new to the job. I am considering adding a name pronounciation to my email signature.

I’m currently thinking something along the lines of this, but want to make sure to avoid a clunky or annoying email signature! Please help by sharing your email signature suggestions and best practices.

Hazyl LastName
Company
Title
Email address
Pronouns: She/Her
Hazyl pronounced “Hazel”

posted by Goblin Barbarian to Human Relations (7 answers total)

Response by poster: I was also thinking to italicize the last two lines, as follows:

Hazyl LastName
Company
Title
Email address
Pronouns: She/Her
Hazyl pronounced “Hazel”

Thoughts?
posted by Goblin Barbarian at 11:29 AM on April 26, 2020

This all seems fine unless your work is excruciatingly rigid about signature lines.

Don't expect anyone to actually read it though. My name is Jen, my email is jen.last@ and displays as Jen, I sign all my emails Jen and it says Jen in the signature line.

I get at least 3 emails a day where someone calls me Jenn or Jennifer.
posted by phunniemee at 11:34 AM on April 26, 2020 [5 favorites]

I have a coworker who does this as:

Hazyl LastName (HAY-zel LAST-name)
Company
Title
Email address

Agreed that 90% of people will refuse to consume that information, but the 10% of us who do actually care will appreciate it.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:36 AM on April 26, 2020 [17 favorites]

→ Don't expect anyone to actually read it though

That right there. My name's Stewart, it's spelled that way in the sender line, and if I'm doing an intro e-mail, I'll usually put something like “Hi, I'm Stewart …” at the start of the first line.

75% of my replies start "Hi Stuart" …
posted by scruss at 12:15 PM on April 26, 2020 [4 favorites]

If your company's Zoom meeting sessions allow you to edit your screen name, you could change it to Hazyl ("Hazel") Lastname. This puts it in front of people's eyes when they need it, rather than relying on them remembering it from an email. Another way to reinforce it would be to say "This is Hazyl" when you start talking on the audio chat (also helpful to people connecting by dial-in who can't see your screen name).

I hear text spoken in my head when I'm reading, so I would tend to remember your phonetic notations, but not everyone processes text this way.
posted by heatherlogan at 12:22 PM on April 26, 2020 [5 favorites]

Just introduce yourself by name at the beginning of every call, both making and receiving. "Hello, this is Hazel."
posted by Jacqueline at 11:18 PM on April 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

Agreed with Jacqueline. I don't have a difficult to read/pronounce name, but I answer my work phone with, "Hello/Good morning/Good afternoon, Firstname speaking."

I started doing this because I inherited the phone and number for my predecessor but have found it very effective in cutting to the chase with wrong numbers and it seems more professional than answering my work phone with "Hello?". It also helps when someone is returning my call and they don't have my number saved in their phone, sometimes they may know who I am/why I called them just by me saying my name.
posted by gursky at 4:41 AM on April 27, 2020 [1 favorite]